Chocolate Tea

One of the best pieces of culinary advice I've ever received was this: always sip something hot when eating chocolate, because the hot liquid magnifies the flavor of the chocolate in the mouth. And indeed it does! Last night I was having one of the new dark chocolate Snickers bars (yum), and with it I had a cup of Marie Belle's Dark Obsession Chocolate Rose Tea (mariebelle.com). Now this was a great pairing, I must say.

Aside from enjoying such a tasty chocolate treat, I also was pleased to find this tea is still quite good, even though I purchased it in the fall about two years ago, as best I can recall. Conventional wisdom says tea lasts only about a year, but I have to say most of the tea I've purchased stays fresh much, much longer than that.

At the World Tea Expo I heard one expert telling blenders they need to track each ingredient in the tea and start the freshness countdown from the moment the tea leaves are plucked. That may be good advice for anyone manufacturing tea, but for an amateur like myself, I have an easier method: just brew a cup, and if it still tastes good, drink up!